THE  RELATION  OF  ALCOHOL  TO  CRIME  IN 
ALABAMA. 


BANCROFT  LIBRARY 


By  J.  T,  Searcy,  M,  D„  of  Tuscaloosa, 

Senior  Counsellor,  "and  member  of  the  Board  of  Censors  and  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Health. 


[From  the  Transaction,  of  the  Medical  Association  of  the  State  ol  Alabama,  1891.] 


Part  1. 


Men  in  the  world  can  be  very  readily  graded  as  they  ascend 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  types,  by  two  very  essential 
qualifications-the  one,  their  degree  of  intellectual-sense,- 
the  other,  their  degree  of  moral-sense. 

By  the  lowest  type  of  man  we  mean  one  both  ignorant  and 
immoral ;  by  the  highest  type,  we  mean  one  both  highly  intel- 
ligent and  highlv  moral.  These  two  qualifications  can,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  be  separated.  We  often  speak  of  the 
mental  and  moral  qualities  as  distinct ;  and  we  recognize  the 
fact,  that  in  the  same  individual,  frequently,  the  levels  of  these 
two  qualities  do  not  correspond.  For  instance,  we  can  have  a 
person  who  will  grade  higher  in  his  ethical  sense  than  in  his 
intellectual,  and  another  whose  ethical  sense  will  be  lower  than 
his  intellectual.  The  rule  though  is,  capacity  to  think  is  ac- 
companied by  an  equal  ethical  capacity. 

In  the  gradual  advance  of  a  race  from  savagery  to  civiliza- 
tion, this  progress  is  occasioned  by  and  marked  by  gradual  im- 
provement in  both  these  particulars. 

In  any  man,  his  intelligence  and  his  ethics  are  exhibited  at 
a  level  correspending  with  his  ability,  which  is  acquired  by 
practice  in  performing  these  kinds  of  action.  The  savage, 
compared  with  the  more  advanced  man,  is  less  able  to  perform 
these  kinds  of  thought,  because  he  has  been  less  practiced  in 


S>4- 


them.  In  human  progress  upwards  through  generations  to 
civilization,  there  is  a  gradual  improvement  in  ability,  until 
the  most  advanced  man  shows  his  excellence  by  his  high  ca- 
pacity to  think  and  to  do  right. 

The  first  essential  in  an  advancing  race  is  activity  ;  an  indo- 
lent, idle  race  never  advances.  It  is  the  activity  or  exercise 
of  the  brain  that  increases  its  ability.  Accomplishments  and 
excellencies  are  acquired  only  by  brain  practice  and  exercise. 

The  rapid  competitions  of  active  society  necessitate  activity 
on  the  part  of  the  individual  to  avoid  suppression  and  elimina- 
tion. Hence  improvement  of  individuals  is  most  rapid  in 
active  society.  The  continuous  brain-work,  which  under  such 
circumstances  becomes  a  necessity,  improves  the  thinking  ca- 
pacity and  increases  intelligence. 

The  intellectual  sense  of  the  rising  man,  threfore,  antedates 
to  some  extent,  his  ethical  sense.  In  active  society,  which 
alone  is  the  advancing  one,  competitive  ability  is  acquired  be- 
fore the  communal  necessity  arises  for  harmonizing  the  com- 
petitions. As  civilizing  society  advances,  the  safety  and  the 
welfare  of  the  community  demand  that  the  competitions  of  its 
membership  shall  be  harmonized.  This  gives  rise  gradually 
to  the  evolution  of  higher  and  higher  rules  of  conduct.  Public 
opinion  and  moral  sentiment,  with  laws  and  government  to 
enforce  them,  thus  become  proportionally  of  a  higher  and 
higher  grade,  as  the  intellectual  competitive  ability  of  the  peo- 
ple advances.  Closely  behind  the  intellectual  level  is  the 
ethical — almost  concomitant  with  it. 

In  the  gradual  improvement  of  society  the  advancing  man 
becomes  more  practiced  in  ethical  observances,  until  as  an  ac- 
companiment to  his  brain  ability  to  compete,  there  also  grows 
in  him  a  higher  and  higher  ethical  sense  of  the  rights  of  others. 
A  high  ethical  sense  is  the  capstone  of  human  improvement — 
the  latest  evolved. 

In  the  best  communities  to-day  we  find  some  individuals, — 
in  some  localities  they  are  comparatively  few,  in  none  do  they 
reach  the  majority — who  have  a  high  order  of  ethical-sense 
inherent  in  them,  at  the  same  time  they  are  inherently  intel- 


3 

ligent.     This  combination  makes  the  best  type  of  man.     He 
is  the  result  of  generations  of  these  kinds  of  brain  action. 

We  speak  of  civilized  countries,  and  of  civilized  communi- 
ties, as  though  their  memberships  are  uniform.  On  the  con- 
trary, every  civilized  community  (so-called)  furnishes  examples 
grading  all  the  way  from  the  highest  type,  just  described,  to 
the  lowest.  We  can  find  persons  in  any  community  in  this 
country  that  grade  very  low,  at  the  savage  level,  in  thinking 
capacity  and  in  ethical  sense.  We  might  style  them  civilized 
savages,  or  rather  the  savages  of  civilized  society.  Many  of 
such  persons  have  the  savage  level  of  moral  sense,  while  they 
hold  a  higher  level  in  intellectual  sense.  This  is  particularly 
the  case  with  deteriorating  or  degenerating  individuals,  they 
lose  their  ethical  sense  in  advance  of  their  intellectual — the 
latest  evolved  and  most  delicate  goes  off  first. 

We  have  not  yet  invented  a  cerebral  dynamometer  by 
which  we  can  test  and  record  a  man's  intellectual  capacity  or 
his  ethical  strength,  but  in  our  associations  with  others  we  in- 
stinctively know  such  information  is  very  valuable.  It  is  very 
important  to  know  the  character  and  ability  of  those  with 
whom  we  associate.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  much  we  are 
engaged  in  this  sort  of  work  ;  we  are  continually  making  esti- 
mates of  this  kind,  and  it  is  astonishing,  in  a  crude  way,  how 
expert  we  get  at  it. 

In  making  our  estimates  in  society,  the  position  a  person  is 
found  to  hold  is  one  to  which  he  has  risen  from  a  lower  level, 
or  one  to  which  he  has  lapsed  from  a  higher  one.  Human 
brain  ability,  of  all  kinds,  is  not  a  constant  quantity — there  is 
no  stand-still  level — the  index  of  ability  rises  and  falls  in  the 
course  of  the  life  of  the  individual ;  and  it  varies  in  the  course 
of  his  line  of  descent.  In  so-called  civilized  communities,  the 
lapses  probably  constitute  the  large  majority  of  the  incompe- 
tent classes. 

Ability,  at  whatever  level  it  is  in  an  advancing  man,  is 
raised  to  that  height  solely  by  previous  brain  exercise.  Brain 
strength  of  all  kinds  comes  from  individual  or  ancestral  brain 
work.    The  person  receives  his  ability  at  a  certain  level  from 


his  ancestry  and  raises  it  by  his  habits  of  thought.  It  is  either 
individual  practice  or  ancestral  practice  that  raises  ability ;  and 
by  far  the  most  stable  and  valuable  ability,  is  that  which  is  the 
result  of  generations  of  ancestral  practice,  kept  up  or  im- 
proved by  individual  practice. 

While  it  is  true  there  is  only  one  way  of  improving  brain 
capacity,  namely  by  brain  activity,  there  are  several  ways  of 
lowering  it.  There  are  several  ways  by  which  the  person  can 
lapse  into  a  lower  grade  of  intellectual  and  ethical  ability. 
Inactivity,  idleness,  I  have  already  stated,  is  the  physiological 
process  of  lapsing  ability.  Functional  capacity  immediately 
begins  to  subside  when  there  is  a  cessation  of  brain  work ; 
this  is  the  physiological  method.  There  are  also  a  number  of 
pathological  processes,  which  impair  the  functional  ability  of 
the  brain. 

Our  pathology  is  always  nothing  more  than  disturbed  or 
impaired  physiology,  and  I  have  dwelt  this  long  on  the  physi- 
ology of  the  brain  functions  because  this  is  necessary  in  order 
to  fully  understand  their  pathology. 

Whatever  injures  the  structure  of  the  brain  impairs  its 
functional  action — this  impairment  is  exhibited  in  loss  of  in- 
tellectual ability  and  in  the  loss  of  ethical  ability. 

We  can  go  through  the  wards  of  our  insane  asylums  and 
find  numbers  of  men  who  once  ranked  high  in  mental  and 
moral  qualities  now  lowered  in  both.  Defect,  injury  or  dis- 
ease now  renders  the  brain  of  each  of  them  incapable  of  per- 
forming at  as  high  a  level  as  it  formerly  did. 

Insanity  indeed  is  only  a  name  we  give  to  a  certain  degree 
of  brain  incapacity.  As  generally  defined,  it  simply  means 
there  is  such  a  degree  of  incapacity  as  renders  the  person  an 
unfit  member  of  society ;  for  this  reason,  for  his  own  or  his 
fellows'  safety,  he  has  to  be  placed  under  forcible  restraint. 
His  brain  is  so  lowered  in  intellectual  ability  that  he  is  unable 
to  compete  for  his  living,  or  conduct  his  business  properly,  so 
a  support  has  to  be  given  him;  and  so  lowered  in  ethical 
ability,  that  he  is  a  nuisance  or  a  danger  to  others,  and  has  to 
be  restrained. 


In  society,  short  of  the  degree  called  insane,  we  have  a 
great  many  kinds  and  degrees  of  peculiar,  cranky  and  delirious 
people.  In  all  these  the  brain  is  more  or  less  pathologically 
injured  or  defective  in  structure.  The  difference  between 
them  and  the  oame  is  only  one  of  degree. 

Besides  the  long  list  of  diseases,  injuries  and  defects  of  the 
brain,  which  impair  its  functional  capacity,  we  also  have  a 
large  number  of  drugs,  which  taken  into  the  circulation,  bring 
down  the  brain's  capacity  to  a  lower  level.  I  need  not  go  over 
the  long  list  nor  point  out  the  peculiarities  of  their  actions, 
but  at  once  mention  alcohol  as  one  of  them.  This  agent,  from 
its  so  universal  use,  probably  next  to  idleness,  does  more  than 
anything  else  to  impair  brain  capacity  and  produce  the  lapsed 
members  of  society. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  alcohol  has  its  principal 
effect  in  the  system  upon  the  brain,  men  would  never  have 
used  it  as  a  beverage.  If  its  effects  were  confined  below  the 
collar  men  would  never  drink  it.  In  seeking  it  and  taking  it 
the  alcohol  drinker  is  after  its  brain  effect. 

The  brain  is  the  organ  of  thought  and  all  conscious  feeling. 
The  partially  altered  condition  of  its  delicate  structure,  that 
alcohol  produces,  renders  it  less  capable  of  cellular  action.  Its 
conscious  sensitiveness  is  lessened  thereby.  It  is  less  able  to 
feel.  The  alcoholized  man  says  he  "feels  better,"  because  if 
he  have  any  pain  or  discomfort,  his  brain  has  less  sense  of  it ; 
and  even,  if  he  have  no  pain,  in  a  state  of  health,  he  has  a 
pleasant  feeling,  because  a  benumbed  condition  is  a  comfort- 
able one.  So,  under  alcohol,  the  well  man  says  he  "feels  good." 
The  luxury  of  alcohol  drinking  consists  in  this  brain  condition. 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  fact,  that  in  order  to  obtain 
the  pleasant  brain  condition  of  lowered  sensitiveness,  the  alco- 
hol drinker  does  not  avoid  or  fail  to  have  the  other  effects. 
The  comfortable  condition  is  the  lowering  of  one  brain  ca- 
pacity, of  sensitiveness,  but  the  other  functions  are  lowered 
with  this  one.  When  the  brain's  ability  to  feel  is  lowered,  its 
ability  to  think  and  to  adjust  conduct  ethically  is  also  lowered. 
The  keenness  of  a  high  ethical  sense  is  probably  the  first  thing 
blunted. 


6 

The  disability  of  the  alcohol  drinker  will  vary  according  to 
several  conditions;  first,  it  will  vary  according  to  the  amount 
taken.  For  instance,  in  proportion  to  the  amount  taken,  con- 
scious sensitiveness  lets  down  from  a  slightly  benumbed,  com- 
fortable condition  to  that  of  complete  anaesthesia;  the  ca- 
pacity for  intellectual  thought  varies  from  being  "a  little  off" 
to  the  condition  of  a  fool  or  a  temporary  dement ;  the  ethical 
sense  is  lowered  through  degrees  varying  from  the  exhibition 
of  slight  indecorum  or  impoliteness  to  the  condition  of  full 
viciousness  or  madness.  All  these  capacities  can  be  lowered 
to  any  level  by  increasing  the  amount  of  alcohol  taken. 
Secondly,  the  degree  of  brain  disability  will  vary  according 
to  the  inherent  brain  strength  of  the  drinker.  Weak  brains 
will  be  lowered  in  ability  more  than  strong  ones,  and  low 
grade,  savage  brains,  will  be  lowered  more  than  advanced 
brains ;  and  defective  brains  will  exhibit  their  lessened  capaci- 
ties in  the  lines  of  their  deficiencies.  Third,  the  disability 
will  also  vary  in  proportion  to  the  length  .of  time  the  brain- 
abuse  is  continued.  A  single  debauch  can  be  recovered  from, 
while  long  continued  use  produces  such  a  degree  of  injury 
that  full  function  is  never  restored. 

All  three  of  these  conditions,  namely,  a  large  quantity  taken, 
a  weak  or  defective  brain,  and  continued  drinking,  sometimes 
obtain  in  the  same  person.  When  this  is  the  case,  the  deteri- 
oration and  degeneracy  of  brain  action  is  extreme.  These  ex- 
treme cases  constitute  the  inebriates.  They  are  always  degen- 
erated to  a  very  low  grade  in  intellectual  sense  and  in  moral 
sense.  There  is  a  tendency  to  return  to  original  capacity,  if 
the  brain-drug-abuse  is  left  off,  but,  I  question  whether  there 
is  any  inebriate  brain  which  ever  rises  to  the  level  of  intellec- 
tual or  ethical  ability  which  it  would  have  occupied  without 
the  damaging  abuse. 

As  society  advances  from  savage  life  to  civilization  success 
depends  less  and  less  upon  muscle  strength  and  more  and  more 
upon  brain  strength.  The  most  advanced  society  pays  the 
highest  premium  for  brain  capacity.  In  active,  civilized  so- 
ciety, the  individual  is  most  interested  therefore  in  his  brain 


ability,  for  his  safety  and  his  success  depend  upon  this.  In 
savage  society  muscle  strength  suppresses  the  weak,  in  ad- 
vanced society  it  is  the  brain  strength  of  the  competent  man 
that  suppresses  the  incompetent. 

The  drinking  man  loses  money,  lets  down  in  business  be- 
cause his  thinking  capacity  is  lowered  by  his  habit — his 
ability  to  compete  is  impaired.  He  falls  into  vicious  habits, 
for  the  same  reason,  his  ethical  sense  is  impaired. 

In  modern  society,  brain  idleness  probably  puts  most  men 
into  the  eliminating  level — next  to  idleness,  comes  alcoholic 
drinking.  The  combination  of  these  two  agencies,  more  than 
anything  else,  rids  crowded  society,  particularly  in  cities,  of  its 
unfit  membership.  Alcohol  is  a  terribly  rapid  eliminator. 
The  least  fit  persons,  both  in  the  wealthy,  idle  ranks,  and 
in  the  poor,  idle  ranks,  are  most  given  to  its  use.  The  use 
of  alcohol,  under  the  light  of  advancing  science,  is  becom- 
ing more  and  more  confined  to  the  class  of  the  weak-brained 
and  the  vicious ;  the  intelligent,  for  the  sake  of  maintaining 
their  intelligence  and  superior  fitness,  are  learning  to  leave  it 

Off.  .ANCROFT  u-.b^y 

Society  is  much  interested  in  the  intellectual  level  of  its 
membership,  but  it  is  most  interested  in  their  ethical  level. 
The  safety  and  survival  of  the  individual  is  mo6t  dependent 
upon  his  intellectual  ability.  Society's  safety  and  survival 
depend  upon  the  moral  status  of  its  people.  The  good  of 
society  demands  morals.  The  most  successful  community  is 
that  whose  membership  is  mostly  composed  of  a  high  order 
of  ethical  as  well  as  intelligent  persons.  A  race  or  a  na- 
tion of  this  kind  will  excel  and  surpass  all  others.  Com- 
munities, races  and  nations,  like  individuals,  compete  with 
each  other.  The  most  successful  is  the  one  which  has  the 
high  intellectual  capacities  of  its  people  welded  into  a  har- 
monious whole  by  a  high  ethical  sense.  There  is  a  very  sci- 
entific explanation,  therefore,  to  the  fact  that  the  most 
altruistic  persons,  those  most  interested  in  public  good,  have 
always  been  opposed  to  alcohol  drinking,  because  they  ob- 
serve it  lowers  the  intellectual  and  the  moral   level  of   the 


8 

people.  Probably  one  reason  they  have  never  succeeded 
better  in  enforcing  their  opinions  upon  the  attention  of  the 
alcohol  users,  is  because  they  have  not  had  the  advantage  of 
most  recent  scientific  knowledge  to  back  their  instructions — 
the  brain  has  been  left  out  of  their  philosophy  altogether. 
I  have  often  been  made  impatient  in  listening  to  the  lec- 
turer presenting  the  "scientific  aspects  of  the  alcohol  question" 
to  an  audience,  to  see  him  illustrate  with  charts,  and  spend 
hours  to  show  the  effects  of  alcohol  upon  the  coats  of  the 
stomach,  upon  the  corpuscles  of  the  blood,  upon  the  struc- 
tures of  the  kidneys,  the  liver  and  the  lungs,  and  never  al- 
lude once  to  the  brain ;  when  the  fact  is,  alcohol's  chief 
and  principle  effect  is  upon  this  organ — especially  are  its 
effects  of  great  importance  on  this  organ  because  the  brain 
functions  so  far  transcend  those  of  all  the  others — I  might 
say  there  is  no  comparison. 

When  a  man  realizes  the  fact  that  alcohol  incapacitates  the 
very  organ  upon  which  his  safety  and  success  in  the  world 
depen^fc  he  will  be  less  apt  to  use  it ;  and  when  society  recog- 
nizes that  with  alcohol  it  can  chemically  make  a  vicious 
man  out  of  its  most  excellent  man,  and  is  continually  doing 
this  with  its  less-fit  classes,  it  will  do  more  to  spread  scientific 
instruction  upon  the  subject. 

Part  II. 

The  above  portion  of  this  paper  I  had  already  prepared  for 
another  audience  when  I  received  a  letter  from  our  worthy 
President  requesting  me  to  "report  upon  the  relation  of  Alco- 
hol to  Crime  in  Alabama."  For  reasons  I  won't  mention  here, 
I  reluctantly  consented  to  do  so. 

On  considering  the  subject,  I  thought  probably  the  thoroughly 
scientific  standpoint  I  have  taken,  and  the  purely  physiological 
presentation  I  have  made  of  the  subject,  would  bring  it,  by 
this  new  departure,  more  interestingly  to  your  attention. 

Such  a  method  of  approaching  the  "Alcohol  question"  to 
me  seemjthe  only  scientific  and  practicable  one,  and  is  entirely 
within  the  bounds  of  medical  science — although  the  subject  is 


seldom  discussed  from  that  standpoint,  especially  its  ethical 
aspects. 

I  don't  think  any  number  of  figures  and  statistics,  compiled 
by  circular  letters  of  inquiry  to  different  portions  of  our  state, 
would  alter  the  general  conclusions  I  have  reached  ;  and  I 
might  very  properly  close  at  this  point  with  the  statement, 
that  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  apply  these  principles  in  our 
different  communities. 

Examples  of  brain  degeneracy  by  alcohol  exist  everywhere 
in  Alabama.  Every  doctor's  practice  brings  him  in  contact 
with  these  cases.  This  kind  of  disability  comes  under  his 
daily  observation  in  all  its  kinds  and  degrees  ;  from  those  cases 
where  the  person's  brain  is  only  temporarily  impaired  in  its 
intellectual  and  its  ethical  capacity  by  a  single  administration 
of  the  drug,  to  those  extreme  cases  where  its  continued  use 
has  produced  such  a  permanent  injury  that  fully  recovered 
capacity  is  impossible ;  the  person  remains  permanently  low 
grade. 

It  is  not  at  all  necessary  for  me  to  illustrate  my  subject  by 
individual  cases  ;  any  intelligent  person  can  recall  numbers  of 
them. 

It  may  prove  interesting,  however,  to  enter  a  broader  field 
and  show  how  alcohol  has  affected  some  of  the  race  degenera- 
cies in  our  state. 

We  have  three  very  distinct  races  in  Alabama — the  Indians, 
he  Africans,  and  the  European  whites.  I  think  I  can  show 
that  alcohol  use  has  had  some  distinct  and  peculiar  effects  upon 
each  of  these  races. 

The  Indians  have  been  almost  entirely  eliminated  from  our 
midst,  very  few  of  the  race  remain  alive. 

It  is  a  very  notable  fact  that  not  only  in  our  state  but  no- 
where in  the  country  have  the  Indians  been  able  to  succeed  in 
industrial  competition  with  the  whites.  I  have  shown,  as  civ- 
ilization advances  with  any  race  in  the  upward  progress,  the 
competitions  of  its  members  become  more  and  more  limited 
to  industrial  pursuits  in  which  the  degrees  of  brain  ability  of 
the  different   persons   determine  the  results  of  survival  or 


10 

ascendency.  When  a  savage  race,  therefore,  is  suddenly 
forced  into  civilized  society,  it  signally  fails  because  of  the 
want  of  previous  brain  practice  and  sufficient  brain  capacity 
in  the  performance  of  these  kinds  of  thought.  Such  a  pro- 
cedure toward  any  low  grade  race  is  equivalent  to  forcing 
them  to  take  their  position  in  civilized  society  at  their  natural 
level,  which  is  at  the  same  level  as  the  low  grade  eliminating 
members  of  that  society.  When  the  Indians,  therefore,  in 
Alabama  were  forced  to  confine  themselves  to  the  habits  of 
the  advanced  Europeans,  they  simply  took  this  obvious  course, 
the  only  one  they  could  assume,  and  fell  into  the  grade  of  the 
eliminating  whites.  They  necessarily  and  naturally  failed — 
failed  intellectually,  in  industrial  competitive  life,  and  failed 
ethically  in  moral  observances — in  common  language,  they  be- 
came poor  and  vicious. 

The  vice  of  the  whites  to  which  they  took  with  avidity, 
was  alcohol  drinking,  because  of  its  temporary  comforting 
effect,  and  nothing  could  more  effectually  have  added  to  their 
further  degeneracy.  Such  a  procedure  has  put  them  "down 
and  out"  rapidly.  Only  a  few  years  find  them  almost  entirely 
eliminated. 

The  general  government  in  its  efforts  to  manage  the  Indians 
finds  that  it  must  first  stop  their  alcohol  drinking.  The  rise 
from  savagery  to  civilization  is  due  to  a  slow  process  of  brain 
practice  through  generations  upwards,  while  brain  degeneracy 
by  alcohol  is  almost  traumatic  in  its  rapidity  downwards.  The 
missionary  finds  therefore  his  efforts  to  stem  the  current  of 
downward  Indian  degeneracy,  if  alcohol  is  allowed,  to  be  "like 
whistling  at  the  wind."  The  inherent  inability  of  the  brain  of 
the  Indian  to  compete  industriously  in  white  society,  and  the 
still  further  disability  of  that  organ  that  alcohol  produces,  are 
the  factors  that  have  led  so  rapidly  to  his  extermination. 
These  are  the  principle  reasons  we  have  so  few  of  this  race 
left  in  Alabama. 

When  the  Spaniards  discovered  America  they  set  out  imme- 
diately to  enslaving  the  Indians.  They  did  this  on  a  large 
scale,  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  in  the  West  Indies.    This 


11 

change  of  habits  was  so  extreme  and  sudden  that  the  Indians 
were  utterly  unable  to  adjust  themselves  to  it.  They  exter- 
minated so  fast,  and  proved  so  unsuitable  for  such  a  life,  that 
the  Spaniards  had  soon  to  import  Africans,  whose  submissive 
habits  were  entirely  different  from  the  Indians — subjection 
being  their  almost  constant  condition  in  Africa.  Their  suit 
ableness  for  slavery  has  always  made  the  Africans  the  prey  of 
other  races  for  this  purpose.  Later  they  were  largely  imported 
into  this  part  of  the  continent  as  slaves. 

During  the  more  than  200  years  that  the  Africans  were  sub- 
jected in  the  United  States  to  slavery,  they  were  practiced  in 
higher  orders  of  brain-work  than  they  ever  performed  before. 
The  result  of  this  forced  discipline  was  a  gradual  elevation  in 
their  intellectual  and  ethical  abilities.  At  the  time  of  their 
freedom  they  were  much  improved  in  both  these  capacities 
over  their  original  level.  And,  at  their  freeedom,  no  where 
else  in  the  world  did  there  exist  6,000,000  of  people,  who,  in 
a  body,  excelled  them  in  three  particulars — general  healthful- 
ness  of  system,  prolificness,  and  sobriety.  They  excelled  the 
whites  in  each  of  these  particulars.  The  general  management 
and  government  of  them  as  slaves,  incited  it  is  true  by  the 
masters'  interests,  tended  to  improve  them  in  these  three 
directions.  Better  general  sanitary  conditions  than  they  ever 
enjoyed  before,  had  improving  effects. 

The  negro  now,  freed  from  slavery,  but  still  retained  in  ad- 
vanced society,  being  of  a  more  submissive  and  adjustible 
nature  than  the  Indian,  requires  less  forcible  coercion  to  hold 
him,  and  the  change  of  habits  is  not  so  severe  upon  him,  be- 
cause he  is  inherently  more  passive  ;  still,  intellectually  and 
morally,  he  assumes  his  level.  That  he  fills  our  police  courts, 
our  chain  gangs,  our  penitentiaries  and  our  convict  camps  is 
but  on  exhibition  of  the  physiological  and  natural  rule,  that 
living  in  a  civilization  of  a  higher  ethical  grade  than  he  is  able 
to  make  for  himself  or  practice,  when  forced  to  live  under  it,  he 
necessarily  falls  short  in  that  kind  of  practice,  and  in  a  larger 
proportion  than  the  whites,  occupies  the  incompetent  and  im- 
moral grade  in  society.     Natural  and  artificial  "selection"  with 


12 

miscegenation,  have  produced  individuals  among  them  that 
rank  well  and  high,  who  point  toward  excellent  "survival," 
and  ability  to  compete.  Still,  it  is  very  apparent  that  the  gen- 
eral average  trend  of  the  race  has  lapsed  in  level  since  their 
freedom.  They  certainly  have  declined  in  the  three  particu- 
lars in  which  they  excelled — of  healthfulness,  prolificness  and 
sobriety.  And,  with  the  scattered  exceptions  cited,  I  think 
their  intellectual  and  ethical  levels  have  let  back,  especially  in 
the  thickly  settled  negro  sections  where  they  have  been  left 
to  themselves.  Aryan  civilization  and  management  still  con- 
tinue to  help  the  negro.  He  is  still  under  the  pressure  of 
forced  European  tutelage.  The  legislation  of  the  state  largely 
spends  itself  in  negro  management.  He  is  recognized  as  a 
general  incubus  upon  the  industry  and  the  government  of  the 
country.  The  public  opinion  and  the  moral  sentiment  that 
control  legislation  and  general  morals  in  the  state,  are  almost 
wholly  manufactured,  promulgated  and  enforced  by  the  whites. 
Negro  violators  of  the  peace  of  society,  of  the  rules  of  honesty, 
and  of  the  rules  of  chastity,  are  not  censured  and  punished, 
except  to  a  very  limited  extent,  by  the  public  opinion  of  the 
negroes  themselves.  Their  convicts,  on  return  from  the  pris- 
ons or  penitentiaries,  hold  social  status  among  them  without 
reproach.  Although  much  elevated  above  its  original  African 
level,  the  average,  or  aggregate  ethical  sense  of  the  race  still 
ranks  low. 

Alcohol  drinking  in  those  localities  where  they  gain  access 
to  it,  is  on  the  increase  among  them.  And,  as  tested  by 
the  elections  held  on  that  question,  if  left  to  their  own 
suffrages,  there  would  be  a  grocery  at  every  cross-road  in  the 
country.  If  it  were  not  for  white  legislation  to  prevent  it, 
much  of  the  same  condition  of  afairs  that  prevail  in  portions 
of  Africa  to  day,  would  prevail  in  the  negro  sections  of  the 
South.  In  south  Africa  whole  tribes  have  melted  away  and 
disappeared  in  the  countries  contiguous  to  the  English  Cape 
Colony,  largely  and  much  more  rapidly  because  of  alcohol 
drinking.  And,  if  European  and  American  rum,  in  its  rapidly 
increasing  proportions  each  year,  continues  to  be  poured  into 


13 

these  sections  as  well  as  the  Transvaal  and  the  Sierra  Leone 
countries,  they  will  all  be  evacuated  for  European  occupation, 
without  the  firing  of  a  gun.  The  same  is  the  case  in  the  new 
Congo  Free  State.  This  condition  of  affairs  has  already 
occurred  among  similar  races  in  the  large  islands  of  Tasmania 
and  New  Zealand  which  for  a  number  of  years  were  English 
penal  colonies.  The  natives  have  now  entirely  disappeared. 
The  same  is  occurring  in  the  Continent  of  Australia — the 
natives  are  being  exterminated  like  our  Indians.  These  races 
were  all  of  negro  type.  Alcohol  is  the  most  rapid  extermina- 
tor of  savage  and  barbarous  races  yet  invented.  It  serves  the 
same  purpose  upon  low  grade  races  that  it  does  upon  low  grade 
individuals  in  advanced  society. 

In  the  "black  belt"  and  thickly  settled  negro  portions  of 
our  State,  the  pecuniary  interests  and  personal  safety  and  com- 
fort of  the  whites,  continue  to  be  the  influences  that  legislate 
for  the  negroes  good.  The  prohibitory  laws  in  those  portions 
of  the  State  are  better  enforced  than  anywhere  else,  because 
the  white  sentiment  that  makes  them  also  enforces  them. 
The  whites  know  the  wide  spread  damage  and  destruction  that 
follow  their  omission — their  own  interests  demand  their  en- 
forcement. The  legislation  and  government  of  these  sections 
of  the  State  are  still  largely  spent  in  negro  improvement  and 
propagation. 

As  regards  the  effects  of  alcohol  degeneracy  upon  the  Euro- 
pean white  race  of  the  State  I  need  have  little  more  to  say.  I 
have  already  shown  its  effect  in  broad  generalizations.  Gen- 
eral information  and  intelligence  is  increasing  on  this  subject 
so  as  to  have  greatly  stayed  the  wide-spread  deterioration  that 
once  prevailed.  Within  the  memory  of  most  of  us,  alcohol 
drinking  once  pervaded  all  ranks  of  society.  It  was  con- 
stantly used  in  every  house.  The  two  most  potent  methods  of 
brain  degeneracy  used  to  prevail  among  the  whites  of  this  sec- 
tion much  more  generally  than  at  present — I  mean  brain 
idleness,  and  brain  injury  with  alcohol.  Among  the  wealthy 
slaveholders  these  habits  were  the  rule — and  they  have  played 
sad  havoc  among  what  used  to  be  our  most  prominent  families? 


14 

Brain  deterioration  and  degeneracy  and  consequent  elimina 
tion  from  these  causes,  can  be  traced  largely  in  all  our  com-" 
munities  among  the  names  of  our  once  wealthy  people.  But  I 
need  not  here  specialize,  individual  cases  are  familiar  to  you 
all. 

Increasing  brain  activity  over  the  whole  State  is  now  having 
an  elevating  effect  to  bring  back  the  whites  to  their  proper 
Aryan  level,  to  recover  them  from  the  deterioration  that  the 
brain  idleness  consequent  upon  the  institution  of  slavery  once 
produced.  In  my  opinion,  while  the  negro  race  was  greatly, 
upon  the  whole,  improved,  the  white  race  was  sadly  deteriora- 
ted by  that  institution.  Increased  brain  exercise  and  the 
cessation  of  brain  injury  with  alcohol,  are,  on  the  part  of  the 
intelligent  people,  now  doing  more  than  anything  else  to  pro- 
duce and  develop  "  the  new  South." 

I  think  I  have  probably  said  enough  to  illustrate  and  make 
plain  "  the  relation  of  alcohol  to  crime "  in  the  state,  and  I 
insist  that  I  have  done  this  from  a  purely  scientific  and  medi- 
cal standpoint. 

I  believe  that  the  heretofore  totally  neglected  subject  of 
brain  sanitation  is  the  direction  in  which,  in  the  near  future, 
there  will  open  up  a  field  for  the  highest  order  of  public 
hygiene.  Old  metaphysical  notions  and  sentimental  preju- 
dices have  heretofore  shut  out  this  field  from  medicine.  We 
have  acted  as  though  the  brain  had  no  functions  and  did  not 
belong  to  our  province  of  science. 


